We're Too Good for This
2021 · 12m · UK
Directed by Missy Malek
Genres: crime, dark comedy, drama, thriller
Tones: dark, darkly comic, tense
A group of deaf and disabled teenagers on a London council estate scheme to steal drugs from a local dealer as payback against an abusive step-brother, only to find themselves face to face with a murderous kingpin — inspired by real-life disabled drug dealers operating in London.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Four authentically disabled actors playing drug-dealing teens in a gritty London crime story — refusing the inspirational frame is the entire point. Worth checking even if the genre's a familiar lane.
Malek casts authentic disabled actors as drug-dealing teenagers rather than inspirational subjects — a refusal of the sympathy-cinema grammar in the harder Top Boy register. Genuinely overdue.
Four authentic disabled lead actors placed inside a gritty British crime thriller rather than an inspirational frame — that's the genre-vs-representation alchemy that breaks new ground. Adam Deacon casting brings real Kidulthood-lineage texture.
Reviews
Gripping and scrappy... tense, funny, and exciting. The core group of friends could easily lead a movie as an ensemble.
We're Too Good For This is a unique, authentic and gripping thriller about a group of disabled teenagers on a British council estate, who prove they should never be underestimated.
Festivals
- BFI London Film Festival 2021
- Brooklyn Film Festival 2022